Oiler news

From the looks of it, Hall + Potter will be back next game, can they help turn the suck off?; Sutton got 8 games, which is less than I expected. That is good I suppose.

League news

HBO 24/7 tonight! I am way to excited about this show; Kurtis Foster was traded from Anaheim to the Devils along with Timo Pielmeier for Rod Pelley, Mark Fraser and a 7th; Terry Murray was fired from Kings, and all of the rumors are currently saying Darryl Sutter may be hired as his replacement; Concussion problems in the league? Crosby, Giroux, Pronger and possibly Skinner are all missing games currently with the concussion bug. I personally think that it’s no higher than it usually is, we just are better at diagnosing it. Oh, and Crosby is the one hurt. Once he’s healthy it won’t be a problem again; Tampa signed Miettinen, who was then claimed by Winnipeg on waivers; In case you didn’t know, the Laffs were sold to Bell/Rogers. Now expect TSN and Sportsnet to be even more Toronto oriented (much like CBC now, which might actually have to find out about the other teams in the league); Anisimov scored a goal, celebrated, and Tampa got it’s panties in a bunch again. Doesn’t anyone realize that only they can have fun.; Vancouver is continuing to be little bitches about everything (hits by Foligno, general douchebagness), and yet wonder why no one likes them.

World Junior news

Final cuts today, and Bunz did not make the team. Too bad, but I think he let in a couple weak ones in the last game, and the goaltending battle was pretty tight. Here is the final roster. Oil King Pysyk made the team so that’s good.

Football news

Don’t normally include football in this here blog, however we are Esks fans and therefore – Ricky Ray got traded for sweet fuck all…what the fuck! This is bullshit. Stupid fucking move. I don’t like it if you can’t tell.

Question of the week

With the Ricky Ray trade, Terry Jones called out the Eskimo management for making a terrible trade…why can’t anyone in the media do the same for the Oilers? It’s like the team has pictures of all of them in compromising situations.Continue reading 'Monday Morning Standings'»

Like this:

Looks like Taylor Hall should be back in the line up maybe even as soon as this Thursday.

Today he practiced on a line with Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky. The “kid” line stayed the same (Gagner-RNH-Eberle), while Ryan Smyth was playing with Eric Belanger and Ryan Jones. Magnus Paajarvi is still the odd man out, although he practiced some with Lennart Petrell and Anton Lander.

Also good news was that Corey Potter was skating alongside Ryan Whitney. Hopefully he’ll be back in the lineup soon too. I think he could help provide a bit of a boost for Ryan Whitney’s lost game.

The Oilers next game is this Thursday vs the Phoenix Coyotes, in Phoenix, at 7:30 PM (TV: Sportsnet Oilers). Per @NHL_Oilers on Twitter: “Taylor Hall will take Coach Renney’s fitness test at practice Wednesday morning, which will determine his status for Thursday’s game.”

PRE-GAME RANT

The Oilers have had their struggles, as of recent, with winning a number of games in a row, and winning the big games. The Flames have always been a thorn in our sides, and there really HASN’T been a Battle of Alberta in years. It’s been more of a free bingo spot on the card for the Calgary Flames vs. us, as this team rolls over. Tonight, I’d like to see the Oilers finally show their fans what they’re made of and no longer use the “tired” excuse and just go out and win one against the one team that we’ve always wanted them to dominate.

The rumor out there (still unconfirmed) is that Andy Sutton is getting 10 games. Yikes. I hope not. But that will give the Oilers some opportunity to see whether they have depth at the defense position too, or not. Corey Potter also should be back soon enough, but I’d like to see them give Kirill Tulupov a shot. That likely won’t happen, although at least it appears that he’s saying the right things right now, which could give him a little favor with those partly in charge of this part of his career.

No concrete word on line ups just yet, but I’d imagine that Devan Dubnyk will get the start, since Nikolai Khabibulin played last night (and played quite well, I might add). Both Ben Eager and Darcy Hordichuk are in, and word is they will be on different lines. Not sure who they will remove (my money is on Paajarvi). The rest of the line up should remain the same, since these guys had quite a good game.

Let’s hope for more of this complete game stuff from the Oilers again tonight.

Like this:

Gilbert had a big game last night, throwing a couple heavy hits, but it wasn’t his only big game of the year. The running joke of “that couldn’t have been Tom Gilbert throwing that hit” is now getting old, as we see him do it more and more. As usual, he and Smid made it difficult on their opponents. I didn’t think I’d see the day that Gilbert figured the physical part of his game out, but he seems to have on a consistent basis, and I’m really impressed. He’s worth his $4m/year now as he’s playing a complete game rather than looking like a guy forced into his role.

And before the “I told you so”s come out, he hasn’t always played like that. The last two years were difficult to watch. I call it like I see it and give credit where/when it is due. The first two years, I really liked his game and was a big supporter of his (from an offensive standpoint more than anything). The next two years, I was pretty disappointed in him. I wanted to see him do better for his own sake and the sake of the team, but I just was not impressed and found it difficult to defend him from the Oil fans out there and soon became one of those fans, unimpressed by his game.

This year he’s managed to keep his offensive game reasonably intact while adding new components to it – smarter defensive play, and finally using his size. See Tom? It wasn’t that hard. I believe Tom Gilbert and Ladislav Smid to be a #1 pairing, capable of shutting down opponents while being able to generate some offense too. This team would not be where they were without these two (in addition to “The Nuge” and Khabibulin). Before the start of the year, who would have thought we’d be saying that at this time?

PRE-GAME RANT

The Oilers are back to floating turds in the toilet again. Just when you think they’re a great team, they turn it around on us. But really, they are still a better team than many would have expected at the start of the year, so I’ll give them some slack. But it would be nice to see them finally turn it around.

Sutton is suspended indefinitely, so Teubert should draw in. The 3rd and 4th lines also have seen a bit of juggling. Add to that, Smyth and Gagner have swapped lines. How will it work out? Well… at this point, they haven’t got much to lose.

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